Why Pablo Picasso Was a Suspect in the ‘Mona Lisa’ Heist

On the morning of Monday August 21, 1911, a sketch artist working in the galleries of the Louvre Museum in Paris notified security guards that Leonardo da Vinci’s “Mona Lisa”—a portrait of an Italian silk merchant’s wife with an enigmatic half-smile—had disappeared. Initially, they showed little concern for the small Renaissance-era canvas, which was valued among the art elite but not yet widely famous. “They thought it had been moved by the conservation department or had been taken to be photographed,” says Noah Charney, author of The Thefts of the Mona Lisa.

In reality, the “Mona Lisa,” also known as “La Gioconda,” had been spirited away at around seven that morning. The highly public dragnet that followed briefly targeted an up-and-coming Spanish artist named Pablo Picasso.

According to Charney, the thief, after working in the Louvre over the weekend, likely hid in a supply closet overnight, then snuck out the next morning. He made a beeline to the Salon Carré, where the “Mona Lisa” was being displayed, expertly removed it from the wall—and from its exceedingly heavy frame and protective glass—wrapped it in a sheet and hid it under his arm.

Security was so lax, Charney adds, that when the robber was confronted by a locked exit door, a plumber unlocked it for him, as workers were regularly being locked in the museum overnight accidentally. Peruggia easily disappeared into the Parisian morning with his treasure. 

Later that day, the Louvre staff finally realized the painting had been stolen and contacted the Parisian police. Since the burglar had left minimal clues, detectives announced the news to the public. “It was an inexplicable mystery,” says Nicholas Day, author of The Mona Lisa Vanishes. “It drew a huge amount of attention. The investigators were under a lot of pressure. But they pursued a series of leads that didn't go anywhere.”

One early suspect officers focused on was none other than Picasso. At that point in his fledgling career, the 29-year-old artist was still a few years away from inventing Cubism and becoming one of the most influential artists of the 20th century.

After settling in Paris in 1904, Picasso befriended a number of artists, painters and poets who all lived, worked and socialized in the building known as the Bateau-Lavoir, a creative hub in the Parisian neighborhood of Montmartre. Over the next few years, as Picasso’s star rose, he became particularly close with the poet and art critic Guillaume Apollinaire. 

In 1907, Picasso told Apollinaire and his then-secretary Honoré-Joseph Géry-Pieret how much he adored three ancient Iberian sculptures then on exhibit at the Louvre, says Charney. Pieret later boasted that he stole the statues from a storage facility in the basement of the museum. “He said he tucked them all under his trench coat,” says Charney. “But they were quite large and heavy. There’s no way a single person could carry all three.”

Whether Pieret worked alone or not, two of the statues ended up in Picasso’s apartment, where he kept them in his wardrobe.

Once the "Mona Lisa" theft was announced, the public devoured newspapers and magazines for news. After a few weeks, when details dried up, some publications offered rewards to generate stories, says Charney. Pieret wrote to the Paris-Journal, admitting he had stolen from the Louvre for years and lamenting that security would now be tighter. 

Police knew Pieret used to work for Apollinaire and that Picasso was his best friend. So, under pressure to show movement in the “Mona Lisa” case, they arrested and questioned the two men on suspicion of stealing the missing Leonardo painting. “They had an alibi and were quickly released,” explains Charney. “Picasso was terrified because he didn’t want to be expatriated to Spain.” 

After being released, Picasso and Apollinaire planned to throw the Iberian statues into the River Seine, to destroy any evidence of the previous robberies. “But he loved them too much. He couldn’t do it. They hid them again,” says Charney. “Then Apollinaire, dressed in a very silly disguise, dropped the statues off at the Paris-Journal, and they were returned to the Louvre.”

Ultimately, the statues played a major part in Picasso’s career ascent. The rough-hewn heads filched from the museum directly inspired two of the faces in his 1907 painting Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, widely considered the first great masterpiece of modernist art.

The man who stole the “Mona Lisa,” meanwhile, was an Italian expatriate and amateur artist named Vincenzo Peruggia. After moving to Paris from Tuscany and struggling to sell his work, he got a job as a handyman for a company subcontracted by the Louvre to add protective glass to many of its artworks.

Peruggia mistakenly believed the “Mona Lisa” was one of thousands of pieces stolen from Italy by Napoleon. “This really was a crime of opportunity,” says Charney. “He wanted to repatriate the ‘Mona Lisa’ to Italy. He thought he would be rewarded and considered a national hero.”

After returning to his Paris apartment with the painting on Monday, August 21, 1911, Peruggia kept it for more than two years. “He would later say the painting cast a spell over him. He became obsessed with it,” remarks Charney, who notes that Peruggia was interviewed twice by police commissioner Louis Lépine.

Peruggia eventually smuggled the “Mona Lisa” to Florence, where he contacted an antiquarian dealer to help him return it to the famed Uffizi museum—for a price. After Giovanni Poggi, the Uffizi’s director, met Peruggia and took the canvas to the museum to be authenticated, he contacted the police, who arrested the thief. Peruggia ultimately served only seven months in jail for the crime. 

After briefly being displayed at the Uffizi, the “Mona Lisa” returned to the Louvre on January 4, 1914, much more famous than before it was stolen. “The international media coverage related to the initial theft,  its miraculous recovery, then Peruggia’s trial, really catapulted the ‘Mona Lisa’ to being the most recognizable artwork in the world,” says Charney. “It’s probably the most famous object stolen in history.”